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Earlier in the summer, musical sensations Mariah Carey and Miguel released a collaboration entitled “#Beautiful.” The song had some chart success and created a solid level of buzz for the long-time diva. However, it’s interesting to consider that multiracial backgrounds of the entertainers: Miguel, for example, has a Mexican father and African-American mother. Mariah, on…

Last week, I finally returned to blogging after half of year of internet slumber. To be truthful, I haven’t lost track of the arguments on all sides, I simply choose to take a step back from the daily vitriol. Nonetheless, I’m a bit disheartened by the increasingly narrow focus on the interests of adults- either…

[Click here to read: Teach For America Isn't Perfect, but it Has Been a Boost to Education] I haven’t posted here in over four months, but I wanted to share some thoughts from all the TFA hoopla as of late. There are some great articles out there providing perspective on the escalating debate over whether…

I recently read Gary Rubinstein’s post entitled: “The Silence of the (Sacrificial) Lambs” and immediately thought back to the classic Paula Cole hit, “Where Have All the Cowboys Gone?” In the past month, his post has generated nearly 100 comments, many from defensive or offended corps members; some of the more insightful comments come from…

Disclaimer: this has NOTHING to do with education. Unless you make the case that Blitzen would have received due justice had he been represented by the Reindeer’s Union (led by Reinde R. Wintergarden). It’s the story of Blitzen, Santa’s head reindeer. One day at the North Pole, Blitzen decides that he’s had enough of the…

Some sticky situations arose this week and I’m not talking about waffle syrup. If you are wondering why we still have violence and education crises in modern day America, look no further than the grown folks making decisions and mouthing platitudes from their soapboxes. We see this pseudo-argumentation about the fiscal cliff (here and here),…

Due in part to the maddening flurry of education reform related articles in the past two month, I had essentially sworn off blogging. While in the groove of seeing real change happening on the ground every day in my work with City Year, I felt increasingly removed from the debate between older folk being played…

Please read the following article about the fires of racial tensions being rekindled due to a lack of thoughtfulness and financial equality around revised public transit plans. Aren’t we in 2012? Why do forced relocation, crowding out, and disregard for minority, low-income communities remain issues in this enlightened age? Yet, pundits question why poverty still exists?…

There’s a well-known saying that goes like this: “be careful what you wish for because you just might get it.” I noticed last night that citizens in Chicago voted to have an elected school board instead of one appointed by the mayor. While this referendum didn’t actually change city law, the 86% of votes in…

Not much to say here. Mississippi once again makes a fool of itself. After President Obama was reelected, a group of students at Mississippi’s largest university, “Ole Miss” decided to protest on campus employing the use of numerous racial slurs best left in the 60s. It’s worth noting that the University of Mississippi has an…

Lately, I feel like I begin every blog post with a disclaimer about how I “haven’t been blogging much recently.” In summary, things are great! I’m enjoying my job (it’s been really busy as of late), it’s nice to have college friends around, and I’m close to home. So, minus Hurricane Sandy, things are good.…

This summer, I was happy to blog about my experience at the MS Department of Education to share my source of hope for the state as I packed up to move back to Massachusetts. Since then, I haven’t really heard much good news: there’s been firings, and scandals, tornados, etc. Fortunately, my friends and former…

Today, the Opportunity Nation campaign focused on measuring opportunity. As we know, The American Dream remains unfulfilled for a large population of US citizens, but such an ideal can be difficult to quantify. Thankfully, we now have a useful metric called the Opportunity Index; this tool can help assess where opportunities are lacking in the…

At my high school graduation, I referenced Sir Isaac Newton’s quote: “If I have seen further than others, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.” Six years later, I’ve found that one of my favorite City Year Founding Stories is the “Shoulders of Giants.” A couple weeks ago, I was inspired by Michelle…

Quick thoughts on two tweets I saw the other day about Teach For America’s finances. The first compares TFA’s revenue and expenses for 2011 . The second tweet looks at the incomes of TFA CEO Wendy Kopp and her husband Richard Barth, CEO of KIPP. I had issues with the implicit message of both tweets.…

Last week, I attended the second Opportunity Nation Summit in our nation’s capital, where many prominent movers and shakers gathered to reassess the challenges plaguing the legacy of social mobility evoked by the “American Dream.” We recognize that the challenges are immense, but I left the conference with a renewed sense of purpose and the…

As I’ve settled into my new job, I’ve encountered only one major downside: I’ve realized that my former students in Mississippi won’t get all the services they need (and deserve) primarily because their school lacks capacity for various reasons. However, it’s not a matter as simple as plopping down a City Year team. In order…

I don’t know enough about the back story to comment on the strike in Chicago; however, I’ve been skimming articles on both sides of the picket line to get a balanced perspective of the situation. One TFA corps members has an insightful post concerning one school. All I can say is that low income students…

Click on the link here: https://apps.facebook.com/chasecommunitygiving/charity/view/ein/51-0518142?ref=e38906d989 to support Bess the Book Bus, a mobile literacy organization dedicated to providing books to under-resourced children across America! “Bess the Book Bus is a mobile literacy outreach dedicated to building home libraries for children and families that otherwise may not have the opportunity to own books.” Last school…

My blogging as of late has been very sporadic, but good things are happening up here in Boston. I’ve also been trying to keep up with education news, but there has been A LOT to keep up with recently. One exciting article I wanted to share is part of the PBS series focused on the…

I’ve had this post on deck for some time now, because I didn’t want to offend anyone. However, now that I am managing corps members of my own, there are certain strategies that I’ve incorporated from my time with TFA. During my two corps years, I often heard my peers complain about the uniform, inauthentic…

Two Weeks! Too Weak!! Wow, I haven’t blogged in two weeks!! Crazy! One of the reasons for this is that I’ve been enjoying my new job, which at some point I’ll blog more about. The other reason for my infrequent blogging is that there’s far too much going on in the country, not just in…

Certain segments of the population are fond of citing irresponsibility and poor choices as the primary driver behind the lack of opportunity for poor households. A few months ago, one article began claiming that people didn’t need welfare because they had microwaves and TVs! Often, the general public takes such claims at face value because…

“The most important thing in the Olympic Games is not to win but to take part, just as the most important thing in life is not the triumph but the struggle. The essential thing is not to have conquered but to have fought well.” -Olympic Creed The Olympics have been amazing to watch (or, rather,…

July has been a slow month for blogging. This isn’t because I don’t have a lot to say, quite the opposite really, but I’ve been so busy transitioning to a new job that it has been difficult to keep abreast of my writing. That said, I’ve come very close to saying a few things about…